The Ruger-5.7 is a game-changer and the best thing to happen to the 5.7x28mm cartridge since its inception.
Stuck between winter and spring temperatures swung from 70 one day to 20 the next. Cold rain dripped from the barn’s tin roof while I gazed out the window and spied yellow jonquil blooms next to my 100-yard berm while mindlessly thumbing .22 caliber cartridges into a pistol magazine… for the twentieth time.
The verdict was already in regarding the accuracy potential of the new Ruger-57 pistol, so I amused myself by plinking at clay birds shoved into the mud from 25 to 50 yards. Nearly all of the 50 targets lay in shattered pieces, so I worked on reducing the remaining orange shards still visible into dust. When the slide locked back on the last round, the new pistol had come through with flying colors and not a single malfunction during this little test. Out of factory ammo, I began the process of setting up a set of 5.7x28mm Redding reloading dies so I could keep feeding this fun-to-shoot pistol.
“The only option in that market was a relatively expensive FN. It’s a fine pistol, but we thought we could do better ergonomically, and at a much lower price.”
Mark Gurney
Nearly a year ago (March 2019), I first got my hands on a prototype of the Ruger-57 at a Ruger press event, ironically enough, at a long-range rifle skills course at FTW Ranch. Several writers were spending their time shooting other new guns and photos, when Mark Gurney, Ruger’s director of Product Management, slid the then-secret project out of a case, handed it to me and asked me what I thought. Even though it was a little rough around the edges owing to its 3D-printed grip frame, the fact that it was chambered for the 5.7x28mm cartridge pegged the cool meter.
Mark handed me a loaded magazine and I walked to the firing line and began to tag steel targets with the zippy little round. Returning for more ammo, I shared that my around-the-farm every-day-carry pistol was a high-capacity pistol chambered for .22 Magnum. (My farm is literally crawling with rattlesnakes and armadillos, and I love my dogs and loathe what these leprous possums on the half-shell do to my yard.)
“The only option in that market was a relatively expensive FN,” Gurney told me when I asked about Ruger’s reasoning behind coming out with a 5.7x28mm pistol. “It’s a fine pistol, but we thought we could do better ergonomically, and at a much lower price.” When I queried about some of the challenges faced while working on the project, he shared, “There isn’t a whole lot of recoil impulse with that cartridge. All those lightening cuts and windows aren’t on the slide just to look cool. We had to minimize slide weight.”
Fast forward several months to when Ruger began shipping production guns, I went hands-on on my home range just before leaving for SHOT Show. I had a partial box of FN 5.7x28mm given to me by a friend, so loaded a magazine and gave it a quick spin around the range on some steel. Running flawlessly, I looked forward to getting more ammo in hand to give the pistol a thorough workout.
Three Decades Old
The FN 5.7x28mm has been around for 30 years, with the FN Five-seveN being the pistol mainstay, the FN P90 PDW and a handful of civilian carbines on the fringe just barely kept the cartridge alive. As many as 40 specialized military units around the globe adopted weapons firing the little cartridge with AP rounds helping keep the round alive, too.
The 5.7x28mm cartridge got its start with FN Herstal when NATO requested replacement for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge in the late 1980s. FN’s engineers had the SS90 armor-piercing cartridges ready by 1990 to work in the company’s pistol and PDW. It actually beat out Heckler & Koch’s 4.6x30mm cartridge in NATO testing. The Germans didn’t like the outcome, so they adopted the 4.6x30mm instead. The NATO group found that the 5.7x28mm round produced more terminal effectiveness on unprotected targets and it was less temperature sensitive in extreme conditions.
One of the factors that have limited widespread adoption by gun and ammo makers is the political climate when it was first launched. The 5.7×28’s body armor-piercing reputation put it into the “cop killer bullet” category, and probably scared off some manufacturers not wanting to get labeled. In actuality, the armor-piercing ammo’s sale is limited to military and police. Expanding and FMJ ammo is just fine for commercial sale.
Gun Details
A highly touted feature of this new pistol is the way it fits your hands. Its slender steel magazine is surrounded by a glass-filled nylon frame. Ruger engineers kept the grip where its width would be comfortable and controllable in even small hands thanks to the size of the cartridge. The width of a 5.7×28 round is 0.31-inch, which gives greater capacities when compared to fatter 9mm rounds.
The Ruger-57 wears an optimized texture, making for a comfortable grip. It has enough texture to keep control of the pistol under the cartridge’s slight recoil. Despite the longer cartridges, the trigger reach is no longer than many common 9mm Luger handguns. All of the controls are easily accessible, like the 1911-style ambidextrous manual safety, robust slide release and the reversible magazine latch.
The steel slide gets a black-oxide coating to combat wear, while the barrel undergoes a salt-bath-nitride casehardening to make it bullet proof… literally. The higher pressures produced by the 5.7 can erode a barrel much quicker than other low-pressure pistol rounds.
The Ruger-57 is surprisingly light for its size. It tips the scales at 23.5 ounces empty, and a loaded magazine only takes it up to 28.4 ounces. It measures 8.6 inches long and is 5.6 inches tall. At its widest, it measures 1.2 inches. Some of this pistol’s feathery weight is owed to engineering it to function reliably. The cartridge’s slight recoil, and its “retarded” blowback design required the slide to be as light as possible. The cuts to the slide and rebated contours are functional requirements. Adding a reflex sight to the weight of the slide may increase mass enough to require the use of heavier bullets to function reliably.
Rounding out the package is a windage and elevation adjustable, serrated rear sight and rapid acquisition fiber optic front sight for fast, accurate shooting; Picatinny-style accessory rail; and Secure Action fire control, which combines Ruger’s reliable and proven internal hammer with a short, crisp trigger pull and a positive reset. To top it off, the slide is drilled and tapped for easy mounting of optics with a separately available optic adapter plate.
Some of this pistol’s feathery weight is owed to engineering it to function reliably.
“The Ruger-57 is destined to become one of America’s favorite handguns,” said Ruger President and CEO Chris Killoy. “This pistol is soft shooting, accurate, powerful and just plain fun to shoot.”
The through-hardened, billet steel slide with lightening cuts features enhanced front and rear cocking serrations. The steel barrel features a black nitride treatment for wear resistance, and the fire control housing is precision CNC-machined from anodized aluminum. It ships in a lockable hard case and includes two, 20-round steel magazines.
Down Range
Testing the Ruger-57 consisted of setting up targets at 25 yards and shooting 5-shot groups… several of them. Federal’s 40-grain FMJ and FN’s 40-grainers loaded with V-Max bullets served as the test ammo. Initial groups with both loads produced groups that exceeded 3 inches, but the pistol – and shooter — quickly settled into a groove where it could keep five rounds around 1 ½ inches. The more I shot it the better it got. The smallest FN group measured 1.359 inches, while the Federal load’s smallest measured 1.488.
All of the shooting was conducted with iron sights. From the box, the pistol was grouping about 12 inches low and slightly right. Using a small flat-blade screwdriver, it was easy to move the sights to correct impact. One of the things that I noticed is that the screw adjustment has click detents, and it’s easy to stop on a high spot between adjustment “clicks.”
The slide’s recoil will settle the sight after a couple of shots and throw groups off slightly at distance. Once I got a feel for finding the “click,” it was simple to adjust the sights reliably. Once they’re set, the Ruger-57’s sights stay set. One of the complaints for other 5.7x28mm auto pistols is that their adjustable sights have a mind of their own. They tend to move of their own volition after setting zero. The Ruger-57’s sights are rock solid. The fiber optic front sight is easy to use, too. The sights are similar to another high-capacity .22 caliber pistol I carry a lot, so that makes me a fan of this feature, too.
The Ruger-57 is the best thing to happen to the 5.7x28mm cartridge since its inception. The infusion of firearms, in addition to the Ruger-57, should boost the cartridge’s popularity. Selling for half of what a FN pistol costs only helps the situation. The fact that the 5.7x28mm can be reloaded just made the Ruger-57 one of my new favorites.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Manufacturer: Ruger
- Model: Ruger-57
- Caliber: 5.7x28mm
- Barrel: 4.9 inches, 1:9 RH twist
- Weight 23.5 ounces, empty
- Capacity: 20-round magazine
- Cost: $800 MSRP
PERFORMANCE
| Cartridge | Velocity | Accuracy |
| Federal Am. Eagle 40 Gr. FMJ | 1,670 | 1.488 |
| FN 40 Gr. V-Max | 1,674 | 1.359 |
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